Ashish Mehta, a Delhi resident who works in a firm at Gurgaon is happy to know that the traffic snarls between Delhi and Gurugram (Gurgaon) may be a history as The Pod Taxis, under discussion for quite some time, are likely to become a reality soon.

Haryana Government and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have officially decided to sign an agreement to start Pod Taxi Service from Delhi to Gurgaon. Also, action would soon be taken to remove encroachments in Haryana region for completion of the construction of Dwarka Expressway.

Haryana CM, Manohar Lal in a meeting with Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Wednesday

This information was given during a meeting between Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari and Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Pod cars are small driverless taxis that run on a dedicated track. The system can move 30,000 commuters per hour in one direction, which could help to put a dent in congestion on the ground, especially if the PRT network expands after the trial.

An interesting feature of the PRT pods is that if someone is in a real hurry, they can hire an entire pod for themselves, bypassing all other stops along the way to their destination. It is likely that a pod full of people going to the same destination would also bypass other stops, depending on how the system is built. The average speed of the pods is 60 kmph.

Photo courtesy- www.techinsider.io

According to sources in NHAI, the network would be built within a year of the contract being awarded.
During the meeting on Wednesday, the Union Minister was also presented with a proposal of Haryana Forest Development Corporation to make National Highway-10 green. Discussions were also held in the meeting regarding construction of a link bypass to connect National Highway- No. 8 with MG Road of Gurgaon and construct bridges at Hero Honda Chowk and other places.

Assuring speedy implementation of all schemes related to Haryana, Gadkari said that the Ministry would extend full support for such schemes. The Chief Minister said that with the support of the Union Minister, the process of construction of 12 new National Highways in the state was underway at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore.

The Chief Minister raised the demand for construction of new bridges on Hansi bypass in Hisar-Rohtak section of National Highway No.10 and Ding Mor on Hisar-Dabwali section. He also urged the Union Minister to grant the status of National Highway to Hisar-Jind via Narnaund road. The construction of this road would reduce the distance between these two important cities by almost 20kms.

Gadkari said that the progress of all schemes related to Haryana would be reviewed every three months.
Principal Resident Commissioner, Haryana Bhawan, Anand Mohan Sharan and other senior officers of Central and State Governments were also present in the meeting.